1. IntroductionMARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL, INC. is a leading global hospitality company, with operations in the United States and 53 other countries and territories. Principal businesses include managed and franchised hotels with Marriott and other international brands, restaurants and foodservice distribution. The company's headquarters is in Washington, DC. The vice president of project finance at Marriott Corporation annually prepares recommendations for hurdle rates in each of the company's three divisions. In this thoughtful case, the company's policies and strategies related to cap rates and cost of capital are discussed. In the above context, the company's share buyback policy is also reviewed; in particular, it focuses on the financial effects that could occur in the event of a repurchase of 30% of the ordinary shares. For practical purposes, this document is organized into four sections: first, an analysis of the company's financial performance as a basis for general discussion; the second section refers to the company's common shares, including the evolution of Marriott's shares on the market and the buyback policy; a third section focuses on company policies for project evaluation; finally, in the fourth section the cost of capital and capital structure are discussed. All four sections relate to the ten-year period from 1978 to 1987 in accordance with the information provided by the text of the case, and it is assumed that if there was a 30% repurchase of Marriott's common stock it would be made in 1988.2. Financial Performance This section examines Marriott's financial performance based on the ratio analysis. Regarding asset turnover, the Marriott ratio grew from 1.17 in 1979 to 1.40 in 1982 (see Table 1), while since 1983 this ratio decreased to 1.29 and has remained more stable. I assume that the asset turnover rate has decreased due to the new acquisitions of hotels, restaurants and other fixed assets made by the company as part of its growth strategy. As Table 1 also shows, the debt ratio grew steadily from 0.58 in 1978 to 0.85 in 1987. , and the debt-to-equity ratio grew from 1.39 to 5.62 over the same period. I believe this debt growth is a result of the company's stock buyback policy, as it had to raise funds through long-term debt to pay for those shares, as discussed later in this paper..